Pro-Football-Reference.com Craig Morton newsfeedhttp://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/news.cgi?id=MortCr00
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31673Sports Reference Logo2/27: NFL Spin Zone- 2015 NFL Draft: Being No. 1 Can Be a Good Thinghttp://nflspinzone.com/2015/02/27/2015-nfl-draft-no-1-can-good-thing/
Will it be Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota, or Marcus Mariota and Jameis Winston? Or will it be one or the other. When the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are officially on the clock on Thursday evening, April 30, in Chicago, Illinois, chances are the name on the card that makes its way to the podium w...2015-02-27 22:37:531/19: FootballPerspective.com- Seahawks Pull off Miracle; So Does Russell Wilsonhttp://www.footballperspective.com/seahawks-pull-off-miracle-so-does-russell-wilson/
I still can&#8217;t quite comprehend what happened. Leading 19-7 with less than three minutes remaining, Green Bay somehow lost the NFC Championship Game. It was the most remarkable comeback in conference championship game history since at least 2006, when Peyton Manning and the Colts came back from2015-01-19 00:35:531/10: FootballPerspective.com- Checkdowns: Manning Faces the Colts in the Playoffshttp://www.footballperspective.com/checkdowns-manning-faces-the-colts-in-the-playoffs/
Today, Peyton Manning will face off against his former team, the Indianapolis Colts, in a playoff game. This is actually the 3rd time Manning has played in a Colts/Broncos playoff game &#8212; Manning is 2-0 &#8212; but the first time he is facing his former team in the playoffs. This will be just t2015-01-10 23:35:511/4: FootballPerspective.com- Ryan Lindley Had the 9th Worst Passing Performance in Playoff Historyhttp://www.footballperspective.com/ryan-lindley-had-the-9th-worst-passing-performance-in-playoff-history/
Ryan Lindley had a very, very bad day against the Carolina Panthers on Saturday. He completed 16 of 28 passes for just 82 yards, with one touchdown and two interceptions. He was also sacked four times and lost 31 yards. Assigning 20 yards per passing touchdown and -45 per interception, and including2015-01-04 22:36:0812/27: Dawg Pound Nation- Manziel Latest Victim Of &#8220;Heisman Curse&#8221; &#160; Recently updated !http://dawgpoundnation.com/2014/12/27/manziel-latest-victim-heisman-curse/
The criticisms of Johnny Manziel coming out of Texas A&#38;M were many &#8212; too short, relies too much on improvisation, never had a playbook, runs too much, off-the-field issues, etc. But the one red flag that people tended to ignore was that trophy he won just two years prior to the 2014 NFL Dr2014-12-27 04:40:5210/27: FootballPerspective.com- Ben Roethlisberger and the Best Passing Games Everhttp://www.footballperspective.com/ben-roethlisberger-and-the-best-passing-games-ever/
Against Indianapolis in week 8, Ben Roethlisberger was close to perfect. He completed 40 of 49 passes for 522 yards. He threw six touchdowns, and didn&#8217;t throw an interception or take a sack. That&#8217;s a magnificent performance: in fact, among players with an 80% completion percentage in a g2014-10-27 00:36:0210/13: FootballPerspective.com- Eli Manning and the Hall of Famehttp://www.footballperspective.com/eli-manning-and-the-hall-of-fame/
Let&#8217;s worry about axes and labels later. For now, take a look at the graph below. The red dots represent Hall of Fame quarterbacks (or players not yet eligible but very likely to wind up in Canton). The blue dots represent non-HOF quarterbacks. The black dot? That&#8217;s Eli Manning. Okay, so2014-10-13 00:35:5410/4: FootballPerspective.com- Tom Brady and the Biggest Drops in QB Performancehttp://www.footballperspective.com/tom-brady-and-the-biggest-drops-in-qb-performance/
In the third quarter on Monday night, I texted my Patriots fan buddy Matt, âIs it possible that we suck? Maybe the run is finally over.â Bill Barnwell mused on this, and Aaron Schatz also wrote about it. It was hard not to think that, given the way the Patriots were manhandled by a mediocre [&#82014-10-04 00:35:598/5: First and Ten Years Ago- NFL News of August 5, 2004http://firstandtenyearsago.com/2014/08/05/nfl-news-of-august-5-2004/
Playing quarterback is tough in any NFL town, but no place is tougher than Dallas, where history sits like a buzzard on a branch. Or buzzards: Don Meredith, Craig Morton, Roger Staubach, Danny White, Troy Aikman. All accomplished NFL quarterbacks, at the very least. Over most of the last four decade2014-08-05 10:36:307/26: FootballPerspective.com- Steve Grogan is the Yards Per Completion Kinghttp://www.footballperspective.com/steve-grogan-is-the-yards-per-completion-king/
In 2013, the average completion went for 11.63 yards. That&#8217;s a pretty low number historically, although it&#8217;s actually a bit higher than some of the recent NFL seasons. Take a look at how Yards per Completion has generally been declining throughout NFL history: If you want to discuss the 2014-07-26 00:35:567/24: FootballPerspective.com- Quarterback Wins: Outlier Seasonshttp://www.footballperspective.com/quarterback-wins-outlier-seasons/
The 1998 season was one of my favorite years in NFL history. It was also a pretty weird one. We had Terrell Davis rushing for 2,000 yards, rookies Randy Moss and Fred Taylor making defenses look silly, and a quartet of old quarterbacks stun the football world. Doug Flutie came out of nowhere Canada 2014-07-24 00:35:447/22: FootballPerspective.com- The Top Quarterbacks And The Receivers They Threw It Tohttp://www.footballperspective.com/the-top-quarterbacks-and-the-receivers-they-threw-it-to/
Last week, I looked at the top receivers and the quarterbacks who threw it to them. Today, we flip that question around and look at which receivers the top quarterbacks threw to. I used the exact same methodology from the previous post, so please read that for the fine details. For Peyton Manning, 22014-07-22 00:35:467/14: FootballPerspective.com- The Top Receivers And The Men Who Threw It To Them IIhttp://www.footballperspective.com/the-top-receivers-and-the-men-who-threw-it-to-them-ii/
One of my first posts at Football Perspective was one of my favorites: the top receivers and the men who threw it to them. I like referencing that post from time to time, so I decided to update the numbers through the 2013 season. I looked at all regular season games since 19601, and calculated [&#82014-07-14 00:35:477/3: FootballPerspective.com- Best AV-Weighted Winning Percentages of Offensive Playershttp://www.footballperspective.com/best-av-weighted-winning-percentages-of-offensive-players/
Yesterday, I looked at the weighted career winning percentages for running backs, with the weight being based on each player&#8217;s yards from scrimmage in each season of his career. Today, I want to do the same thing but for all offensive players, using PFR&#8217;s Approximate Value ratings. By th2014-07-03 00:35:446/13: FootballPerspective.com- The Greatest QB of All-Time V, Part III: Adjusted Dropbackshttp://www.footballperspective.com/the-greatest-qb-of-all-time-v-part-iii-adjusted-dropbacks/
The comments to Parts I and II of this series have been great, so let me start with a thank you. One of the more difficult parts of this process is comparing players across eras not just for efficiency, but for gross volume. In 2013, teams averaged 38.0 pass attempts (including sacks) per game, comp2014-06-13 00:35:526/10: FootballPerspective.com- The Greatest QB of All-Time V, Part II: Career Rankingshttp://www.footballperspective.com/the-greatest-qb-of-all-time-v-part-ii-career-rankings/
Yesterday, I explained the methodology behind the formula involved in ranking every quarterback season since 1960. Today, Iâm going to present the career results. Converting season value to career value isnât as simple as it might seem. Generally, we donât want a player who was very good for 12014-06-10 00:35:556/9: FootballPerspective.com- The Greatest QB of All-Time V, Part I (Methodology)http://www.footballperspective.com/the-greatest-qb-of-all-time-v-part-i-methodology/
In 2006, I took a stab at ranking every quarterback in NFL history. Two years later, I acquired more data and made enough improvements to merit publishing an updated and more accurate list of the best quarterbacks the league has ever seen. In 2009, I tweaked the formula again, and published a set of2014-06-09 00:35:535/16: FootballPerspective.com- Who is the Best Backup Quarterback Ever?http://www.footballperspective.com/who-is-the-best-backup-quarterback-ever/
Determining the best backup quarterback ever is really complicated. Steve Young and Aaron Rodgers backed up Joe Montana and Brett Favre, respectively, but neither Young nor Rodgers morally feel like they belong in the discussion of best backup quarterbacks. There are a couple of ways to measure how 2014-05-16 00:36:175/4: FootballPerspective.com- The Evolution of Quarterbackshttp://www.footballperspective.com/the-evolution-of-quarterbacks/
With the NFL draft approaching, you&#8217;ll hear a lot of statements about how the quarterback position is changing. Mobile quarterbacks are now &#8220;in&#8221;, which is a good thing for Johnny Manziel. A 6&#8217;4 frame is no longer required, which is a good thing for&#8230; well, Manziel, and n2014-05-04 00:35:464/20: The Landry Hat- Rank the Dallas Cowboys Best Drafts In Franchise Historyhttp://thelandryhat.com/2014/04/20/rank-dallas-cowboys-best-drafts-franchise-history/
Rank the Dallas Cowboys Best Drafts: In a history that includes two dynasties, the Dallas Cowboys have had some pretty remarkable draft classes. Over 53 drafts, the Cowboys have selected 67 Pro Bowlers, according to data gleaned from pro-football-reference.com; 28 of those Pro Bowlers were also All 2014-04-20 20:37:354/7: The Landry Hat- Rank The Greatest Dallas Cowboys Quarterbacks of All-Timehttp://thelandryhat.com/2014/04/07/rank-greatest-time-dallas-cowboys-quarterbacks/
Depending on when you became a Dallas Cowboys fan, you might have different answer to the following question: Who is the greatest quarterback in Cowboys history? For those whom have been around since the beginning, the answer is probably Roger Staubach. For those who only remember the 90&#039;s Supe2014-04-07 11:37:454/3: The Landry Hat- Gil Brandt: Cowboys Should Find Tony Romo's Successor Nowhttp://thelandryhat.com/2014/04/03/gil-brandt-cowboys-find-tony-romos-successor-now/
When we talk about replacing a Dallas Cowboys quarterback, there are only a handful of men who have actually done it. Gil Brandt is one of those men. The former Vice President of player personnel for the Cowboys from 1960 to 1988, Brandt currently works as a Media senior analyst for NFL.com. In his 2014-04-03 11:37:483/19: FootballPerspective.com- Checkdowns: Judging QBs By Their Top 5 Seasonshttp://www.footballperspective.com/checkdowns-judging-qbs-by-their-top-5-seasons/
While working on a different post, I needed to derive a quick-and-dirty formula to identify the top 100 or so quarterbacks in NFL history. Here is how I went about doing that: 1) Calculate the Relative ANY/A of each quarterback in every season since 1950. ANY/A, of course, is Adjusted Net Yards per 2014-03-19 00:36:033/9: FootballPerspective.com- One Play Awayhttp://www.footballperspective.com/one-play-away/
Football Perspective accepts guest posts, and Andrew Healy submitted the following post. And it&#8217;s outstanding. Andrew Healy is an economics professor at Loyola Marymount University. He is a big fan of the New England Patriots and Joe Benigno. The Catch. The Immaculate Reception. The Fumble. We2014-03-09 23:35:482/9: FootballPerspective.com- Where Does Luck/Smith Rank Among Great Playoff QB Battles?http://www.footballperspective.com/where-does-lucksmith-rank-among-great-playoff-qb-battles/
The NFL playoffs began in very entertaining fashion in Indianapolis. The Chiefs lost Jamaal Charles on the first drive of the game to a concussion, but stormed out to a 38-10 lead. Then the Colts pulled off the second greatest comeback in NFL history, eventually winning 45-44. The much-maligned Alex2014-02-09 23:36:581/27: FootballPerspective.com- The Best Playoff Quarterbacks In The Super Bowl Erahttp://www.footballperspective.com/the-best-playoff-quarterbacks-in-the-super-bowl-era/
On Friday, I explained the idea behind Playoff Leverage. That post is required reading before diving in today, but the summary is that the Super Bowl counts for more than the conference championship games, which count for more than the division round games, which count for more than the wild card ga2014-01-27 23:36:131/24: FootballPerspective.com- SB XLVIII Is The Best Offense/Defense Super Bowl Everhttp://www.footballperspective.com/sb-xlviii-is-the-best-offensedefense-super-bowl-ever/
This year, the Broncos averaged 37.9 points per game, 14.5 points more than league average. Seattle, meanwhile, allowed just 14.4 points per game, 9.0 points better than league average. That means this is a true clash of the titans in one sense: when the Broncos offense is on the field against the S2014-01-24 11:36:341/17: FootballPerspective.com- Championship Game Preview: New England at Denverhttp://www.footballperspective.com/championship-game-preview-new-england-at-denver/
Someone needs to say it. I know, I know, it&#8217;s Manning/Brady XV. But someone needs to remind people that Peyton Manning threw 30 more touchdown passes than Tom Brady in 2013. He threw for over 1,000 more yards. He threw one less interception. He was sacked 22 fewer times. And did I mention that2014-01-17 23:36:221/3: FootballPerspective.com- Wildcard Preview: New Orleans at Philadelphiahttp://www.footballperspective.com/wildcard-preview-new-orleans-at-philadelphia/
Kansas City/Indianapolis Preview New Orleans Saints (11-5) (+2.5) at Philadelphia Eagles (10-6), Saturday 8:10 PM ET We&#8217;re fully immune to the Saints offense at this point. Drew Brees just threw for for 5,162 yards and 39 touchdowns and it didn&#8217;t even register on most radars. One reason 2014-01-03 23:36:3412/27: FootballPerspective.com- Ryan Tannehill had one of the worst passing games everhttp://www.footballperspective.com/ryan-tannehill-had-one-of-the-worst-passing-games-ever/
Did you happen to notice the stat line produced by Ryan Tannehill last week? He completed just 10 of 27 passes for only 82 yards in a 19-0 loss to the Bills. A 37% completion rate and a 3.0 yards per attempt average are ugly numbers in their own right, but Tannehill was also sacked [&#8230;]2013-12-27 23:36:3612/23: Simulation Sports- Lee Roy Jordan Leads the Cowboys to the Super Bowlhttp://simulationsports.blogspot.com/2013/12/lee-roy-jordan-leads-cowboys-to-super.html
1967 AFL/NFL Playoff SimulationThe Dallas Cowboys are headed to Super Bowl II to face the Oakland Raiders who defeated the Houston Oilers in the AFL title game.&nbsp;The Cowboys avenged their loss to the Packers at home last season in the NFL title game.This year's game was played in Lambeau Field a2013-12-23 13:37:1712/19: FootballPerspective.com- Eli Manning in elite INT territoryhttp://www.footballperspective.com/eli-manning-in-elite-int-territory/
After a five-interception performance against a dominant Seattle pass defense, Eli Manning now has 25 interceptions this season. The odds are extremely low, but it&#8217;s not impossible that he throws ten more interceptions and ties the modern record set by Vinny Testaverde in 1988. That year, a 252013-12-19 23:38:3911/14: FootballPerspective.com- Is Chiefs-Broncos The Best Regular Season Matchup Ever?http://www.footballperspective.com/is-chiefs-broncos-the-best-regular-season-matchup-ever/
Kansas City is 9-0. Denver is 8-1. As far as resumes go, it&#8217;s hard to beat this matchup. But is it the best ever? You can&#8217;t just average Kansas City&#8217;s 100% winning percentage with Denver&#8217;s 88.8% rate, since a matchup of teams with 3-0 records (like New Orleans-Miami earlier t2013-11-14 23:36:2810/16: S-R Blog- Stat Questions: Team Passing Yards vs Individual Passing Yardshttp://www.sports-reference.com/blog/2013/10/stat-questions-team-passing-yards-vs-individual-passing-yards/
This is a question we get ALL the time... In fact, it's come up twice in my inbox over the last 2 days: "How is a total of -11 (-1 Dallas and -10 Green Bay) passing yards figured in the Oct 24, 1965 game when Individual stats show Craig Morton for 61 yards and Bart [&#8230;]2013-10-16 16:36:2610/15: FootballPerspective.com- Most Pick Sixes Thrown in NFL Historyhttp://www.footballperspective.com/most-pick-sixes-thrown-in-nfl-history/
Three years ago to the day, I crunched the numbers to see which quarterbacks had thrown the most pick sixes thrown in NFL history. With three more years of data, a robust play-by-play database, and, ya know, Matt Schaub, I figured it was time for an update. In case you haven&#8217;t noticed, Schaub 2013-10-15 00:36:1210/7: FootballPerspective.com- Where Does Manning/Romo Rank Among Great QB Games?http://www.footballperspective.com/where-does-manningromo-rank-among-great-qb-games/
Peyton Manning and Tony Romo staged a classic yesterday afternoon in Dalllas. The Broncos won 51-48, and the two quarterbacks put up ridiculous stat lines. Manning went 33 of 42 for 414 yards, and threw four touchdowns and just one interception. He wasn&#8217;t sacked, giving him an impressive 10.692013-10-07 12:36:459/29: FootballPerspective.com- Sam Bradford, and Ranking Quarterbacks by Yards per Completionhttp://www.footballperspective.com/sam-bradford-and-ranking-quarterbacks-by-yards-per-completion/
As a rookie, Sam Bradford ranked last in the league in yards per completion. That year, he averaged 9.92 YPC, 1.61 yards per completion lower than the league average of 11.53. In his second and third years &#8212; 2011 and 2012 &#8212; Bradford was a little better in that metric, but he still finish2013-09-29 00:36:268/27: FootballPerspective.com- Is Russell Wilson the next Ben Roethlisberger?http://www.footballperspective.com/is-russell-wilson-the-next-ben-roethlisberger/
On the surface, Russell Wilson and Ben Roethlisberger have almost nothing in common. Wilson was an undersized, overlooked, third-round pick, while Roethlisberger was a first round pick who is one of the most physically imposing quarterbacks in NFL history. But both players had pretty similar rookie 2013-08-27 00:36:138/6: FootballPerspective.com- Another Quarterback Aging Curve Post (Adjusted Net Yards Per Attempt Edition)http://www.footballperspective.com/another-quarterback-aging-curve-post-adjusted-net-yards-per-attempt-edition/
Back in March, Chase wrote a post investigating how quarterbacks age, finding that they peak at age 29 (with a generalized peak from 26-30) in terms of value over average. Today, I thought I&#8217;d quickly look at how quarterbacks age in terms of their performance rate &#8212; specifically, their A2013-08-06 00:35:557/26: FootballPerspective.com- Having the worst game of your career in the playoffshttp://www.footballperspective.com/having-the-worst-game-of-your-career-in-the-playoffs/
Scott Kacsmar recently wrote about how Daunte Culpepper had the worst performance of his career in his biggest game. In his only NFC Championship Game appearance, Culpepper went 13-of-28 for 78 yards with three interceptions and four sacks. Which made me wonder: how many other great quarterbacks hav2013-07-26 00:36:314/13: FootballPerspective.com- Fourth Quarter/Overtime Game-Winning Passing Touchdownshttp://www.footballperspective.com/fourth-quarterovertime-game-winning-passing-touchdowns/
Yesterday, I looked at the career leaders in 4th quarter (and overtime) game-winning touchdowns from scrimmage. Today I will do the same thing for passing touchdowns. As a reminder: tracking things like game-winning touchdowns is only interesting in a trivial sort way. I looked at all games, regular2013-04-13 00:35:472/13: FootballPerspective.com- Happy Valentine&#8217;s Day to The Quarterback in Your Lifehttp://www.footballperspective.com/happy-valentines-day-to-the-quarterback-in-your-life/
There have been 35 quarterbacks in NFL history to throw for at least 30,000 yards. Given enough time, you could probably guess that Drew Bledsoe, Jim Kelly, and Steve McNair are three of them. All three have something else in common: they were all born on February 14th. If we drop the cut-off to 16,2013-02-13 23:35:432/5: Nearmint's Football Cards- Happy Birthday, Craig Morton!http://www.nearmintcards.com/blog/2013/02/05/happy-birthday-craig-morton/
Craig Morton, who played 18 seasons for the Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, and Denver Broncos, is 70 today.2013-02-05 09:35:041/20: FootballPerspective.com- Super Bowl Historyhttp://www.footballperspective.com/super-bowl-history/
Now that the Super Bowl matchup is set, I thought I&#8217;d start the two-week period with some Super Bow history. The table below lists some information from each of the first 46 Super Bowls. With Joe Flacco and Colin Kaepernick facing off, that ends five-year streak where at least one of the two q2013-01-20 23:35:451/20: FootballPerspective.com- Trivia: Name the last team to start different QBs in consecutive conference championship gameshttp://www.footballperspective.com/trivia-name-the-last-team-to-start-different-qbs-in-consecutive-conference-championship-games/
In 2011, San Francisco made it to the NFC Championship Game with Alex Smith at quarterback; today, the 49ers will face the Falcons with Colin Kaepernick as their starter. This makes them the 9th team since 1970 to make the conference championship game in consecutive years but to start different quar2013-01-20 01:35:431/4: FootballPerspective.com- Checkdowns: Career passing stats in wins and losseshttp://www.footballperspective.com/checkdowns-career-passing-stats-in-wins-and-losses/
Last weekend, I looked at career rushing stats in wins and losses; today I will do the same but for quarterbacks. I looked at all games, including playoffs, from 1960 to 2011, for all quarterbacks with at least 5,000 career passing yards over that time period. The table below lists the following inf2013-01-04 23:35:4812/9: FootballPerspective.com- Larry Fitzgerald, innocent bystanderhttp://www.footballperspective.com/larry-fitzgerald-innocent-bystander/
In the preseason, I wrote a post showing what percentage of each receiver&#8217;s receiving yards came from each of their quarterbacks. Using that same methodology, here&#8217;s an updated look at the quarterbacks responsible for Larry Fitzgerald&#8217;s career numbers entering week 14. The second r2012-12-09 23:35:3911/23: FootballPerspective.com- Checkdowns: A different starting quarterback in three straight gameshttp://www.footballperspective.com/checkdowns-a-different-starting-quarterback-in-three-straight-games/
Ben Roethlisberger started the first nine games of the season, but things are getting ugly quickly in Pittsburgh. After suffering a right shoulder injury and bruising his ribs against the Chiefs, Byron Leftwich started last weekend against the Ravens. Leftwich injured his ribs against Baltimore, lea2012-11-23 23:35:5211/17: FootballPerspective.com- Checkdowns: QB Playoff Wins by Collegehttp://www.footballperspective.com/checkdowns-qb-playoff-wins-by-college/
Watching Matt Barkley today against UCLA, I tweeted that Mark Sanchez is responsible for 4 of the 9 playoff wins by USC quarterbacks. Since twitter is not a very good medium for showing large datasets, here&#8217;s a quick look at which colleges have produced the quarterbacks with the most playoff v2012-11-17 19:35:4110/4: FootballPerspective.com- Quarter-by-Quarter Team Win Probability Addedhttp://www.footballperspective.com/quarter-by-quarter-team-win-probability-added/
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a method of calculating a team&#8217;s win probability at the end of any given quarter, given the pregame Vegas line and the score margin of the game after the quarter in question. Today, I want to break down those numbers in more detail by looking at which [...]2012-10-04 00:36:249/24: FootballPerspective.com- Interceptions per Incompletion (or POPIP)http://www.footballperspective.com/interceptions-per-incompletion-or-popip/
I leave the baseball analysis to my brothers at baseball-reference.com, but I know enough to be dangerous. There&#8217;s a stat called BABIP, which stands for Batting Average on Balls In Play. A &#8220;ball in play&#8221; is simply any at bat that doesn&#8217;t end in a home run or a strikeout. The 2012-09-24 00:36:30